How do people's references to religion and media shape democratic participation in small-scale communities? This research question is applied to pilot case studies across two continents, namely the growth point of Tsanzaguru in Zimbabwe and the municipality of Sør-Aurdal in Norway. In each community, ten `general influential opinion leaders' were interviewed ahead of the 1995 elections. `Religious belonging' (i.e. affiliation to various Christian groups) was applied as a main variable. Sør-Aurdal offers an opportunity to study the contrast between `church' and `sect', while Tsanzaguru displays a more pluralistic pattern of `denominations' and African `charismatic collectivities'. In these cases, it appears that religious belonging does have a bearing on how people do or do not engage with the processes of democratic participation and on the ways that people use the media for such purposes.
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